What Is Absinthe ?

Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beveragedistilled at high proof but generally served diluted with iced water or in cocktails. The preparation of Absinthe liquor is done from a wine alcohol base and is flavored with herbs and essential oils together with wormwood, aniseed and fennel. Hyssop, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, juniper, nutmeg, dittany, calamus root and mint are the other herbal ingredients used in the manufacture of Absinthe.

Information about Absinthe History

Absinthe has a very long and interesting history. Wormwood has been used in medicine since ancient times. Legend says that Absinthe was created by a French doctor Dr Pierre Ordinaire in the late 18th century, in the Swiss town of Couvet in the Val-de-Travers. Ordinaire used it on his patients as a medicine which gave amazing results.

The Absinthe recipe was used by Henri-Louis Pernod to distill Absinthe in Couvet and then the French town of Pontarlier under the name of Pernod Fils. The Pernod company used to manufacture upto 30,000 liters of Absinthe each day!

Absinthe was found to be famous in France, in La Belle Epoque and many other nations also. The popularity of Absinthe was more in comparison to wine in France. There were concerns about health and the effects of Absinthe simultaneously. The liquor was linked to the Bohemian culture of Montmartre with its loose morals and artists and writers. People became convinced that thujone, the chemical in wormwood, was psychoactive and caused psychedelic effects, convulsions, insanity, brain damage and death.

People believed that Absinthe was responsible for Van Gogh’s insanity and his suicide, for a man killing his family and for the rising rate of alcohol abuse in France. The USA and France restricted Absinthe in the year 1912 and 1915 respectively. It was also illegal to buy and sell Absinthe in other nations.

Absinthe Revival

During the ban, people either drank Absinthe substitutes, such as Pernod Pastis, or bought bootleg Absinthe. A large number of people were satisfied with the results that came out from the studies and research related to Absinthe.

Studies showed that Absinthe was no more dangerous than consuming other strong alcoholic beverages, such as whisky and vodka, and that Absinthe contained only very small amounts of thujone – not enough to cause any harmful side effects.

Absinthe with up to 10mg/kg of thujone was legalized in the EU in the late 20th century and in 2007, in the USA, certain brands of Absinthe, those containing up to 10 ppm, were legalized and Americans can now enjoy buying brands such as “Lucid” .

France, home of Pernod’s original Absinthestill has a ban on products labeled “Absinthe” and France also strictly regulates drinks containing fenchone, a chemical in fennel which is a key ingredient in Absinthe. One can get Absinthe with up to 5mg per liter of fenchone in France.

In these times of revival, it is possible to order Absinthe online, buy it in a liquor shop or buy real wormwood Absinthe essences to make your very own Green Fairy – see AbsintheKit.AbsintheKit.com is the website giving full information about Absinthe essences. They also sell replica Absinthe glasses and spoonslike a Pontarlier glass and Eiffel Tower spoon.